In God’s full salvation there are a number of major steps. These steps include redemption, regeneration, transformation, and glorification. As God’s creatures, we were created by Him to fulfill His purpose. However, we have become fallen. To be fallen is to be lost. We became lost because of our fall into sin. But God came to be a man in the Person of the Son that He might be our Redeemer. As our Redeemer, Christ died on the cross for our sins. Although we were fallen and lost, God came as a man to accomplish redemption and to bring us back to Himself.
Redemption, however, is simply the initial stage of God’s full salvation. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were redeemed to God. But at the same time the Spirit of God, with Christ’s redemption as the basis, entered into our being. In particular, the Spirit came into our spirit to regenerate us, to bring God’s life into our deadened spirit and to make our spirit alive. In this way we were regenerated of God. To be regenerated is not the same as being born of our parents to receive physical life; it is to be born of God to receive spiritual life. This means that the very God who is life came into our spirit to be our life, our nature, and our person.
In our experience redemption and regeneration occur at the same time. We were redeemed, and our sins were forgiven. As a result, we have been justified by God and reconciled to Him. Now that Christ has redeemed us to God, there is no longer a problem between us and God. At the same time, we were regenerated, born again of God. Through regeneration we have become children of God.
Regeneration, like redemption, is just the beginning, the initial stage, of God’s salvation. Just as birth is the beginning of human life, so regeneration is the beginning of spiritual life. Following regeneration, we need transformation.
If we would understand the meaning of transformation, we need to use terms such as constitution and reorganization. Used with respect to transformation, the word constitution means that a certain new element is added into our being and constituted into us. Of course, the element that is added into us is the divine element. Before we were regenerated, we did not have the divine element. Whether we were good or bad, we all possessed only the human element. Those who are fallen and those who are redeemed are the same in that both have the human element.
We can compare ourselves to a glass of water. Whether the glass is clean or dirty, it contains nothing other than plain water. It has no other contents, no other elements. Therefore, what is in the glass does not have the flavor or color of anything except water. However, if tea is added to this glass of water, another element is put into the water. Then two substances, the water and the tea, the tea and the water, are mingled together. This mingling is what we mean by constitution. The water is constituted into the tea, and the tea, into the water.
Continuing to use the illustration of water and tea, we would point out that it is impossible for water to become tea without the element of tea added to the water. There is only one way for water to become tea, and that is to put tea into water. When the element of tea is added to water, this element will constitute the water into tea. Once water has become tea, it has two elements: tea and water. Anyone who drinks this tea will receive these two elements. He takes only one kind of drink into him, but he receives two kinds of elements. He enjoys the water to quench his thirst and the tea to give him a certain taste.
We need to be very clear, however, that the mingling of tea and water does not produce a third substance, a substance which is neither tea nor water. To say that the element of tea is mingled with water does not mean that the two original substances, the tea and the water, are nullified and no longer exist. On the contrary, the water is still water, and the tea is still tea. The difference is that once the tea and the water have been mingled, they are no longer separate. They are distinct, but they are not separate, for they have been mingled together and constituted into one entity, one drink. In the same principle, when divinity is mingled with humanity, both divinity and humanity continue to exist. It would not be true to say that this mingling produces a third substance, something which is neither divine nor human.